8 Lessons Learned: Guides

What’s New With Google Penguin Update?

In April of 2012, Google launches Penguin Update which is meant to catch sites that are considered to spam the search results. And in particular, this is to catch websites that buy links or is getting them through link networks mainly designed to boost the website’s rankings. The update is focused on decreasing the website and even web pages rankings that have made use of black hat SEO techniques.

Obviously, Google has given different page rankings on different websites. The page ranking is used to determine the frequency of its appearance on the search results, assuming that they are related to the search keyword used by people. As an example, if the end user has searched for watches and jewelry and it happens that your site is about it, then you are going to get higher page ranking compared to others, putting you on 1st or 2nd pages of search results.

The website owner has the capability to manipulate results, with the proper use of different SEO techniques, which allowed them to get higher page ranking and make their site appear on first page. But when Google Penguin update was launched, those website owners that are using black hat SEO techniques such as cloaking, keyword stuffing and the likes are given with lower page ranking and penalized, putting them in a not so good position. Websites that make use of SEO techniques which are permitted by Google will not be affected that much by this update.

The update is beneficial to website owners that are not using forbidden SEO techniques and instead, using legit or white hat SEO that are permitted by Google. This boosts their page ranking considerably, pulling in more customers in the process as their sites are likely to appear on top of search results pages.

Also, the update is beneficial for the users who depend largely on the internet to find sites that offer particular item or service that they are searching for. They’re able to find websites that are more reliable and at the same time, avoid those that are spammy and is bringing no relevant content to what they’re looking for with this update.

The thing is, this update has made many small enterprises to be affected negatively to the point that it pushes them out of the game. This is due to the reason that most of these small businesses depend on SEO techniques in order to keep up with bigger and more established companies. In this particular update, not just the fact that they will b penalized for utilizing SEO techniques but also, they are given with a lower priority on the search results, which is bad for business of course.